Houston Chronicle,
Health & Medicine
June
8, 2007, 9:36PM
Associated Press
AUSTIN — Enrollment in the state's low-cost insurance program for children fell by 5,000 in June, marking the fourth straight month of declines, state officials said Friday.
Approximately 300,800 children are registered this month for the Children's Health Insurance Program, or CHIP, which covers Texas children whose parents make too much to qualify for Medicaid and too little to buy private insurance. That registration number shows about 25,000 fewer participants than the program had in December.
Lawmakers reached a deal last month that could add more than 100,000 children to the program by loosening enrollment restrictions and allowing families to enroll once a year instead of twice. Gov. Rick Perry has until June 17 to sign or veto the bill, and he has not indicated what he plans to do.
Ted Hughes, a spokesman for the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, blamed the decline on the agency's decision to end an amnesty program for families with incomplete applications. The commission cited the same problem last month, when enrollment declined by more than 17,000.
Hughes also pointed out that enrollment in children's Medicaid is at its highest point in several years, with more than 1.7 million enrolled in that program.
Still, the CHIP declines have exasperated Democratic lawmakers and advocates for low-income families. Barbara Best, executive director of the Children's Defense Fund of Texas, urged the commission to implement the legislative changes as quickly as possible.
"It is absolutely imperative that we rebuild these CHIP rolls," Best said. "We can't wait any longer."
The legislation awaiting Perry's signature would reverse several cuts lawmakers made in the face of a $10 billion budget deficit in 2003. About 206,500 children have left the program since those changes were implemented.
The new bill's standards would allow families to enroll once a year instead of twice, ease restrictions on families' assets and eliminate the 90-day waiting period for children not previously covered by an insurance plan.
Texas has the nation's highest rate of uninsured children, with one in five children lacking coverage, according to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, a New Jersey-based health care philanthropy.
More than half of the 1.4 million uninsured children in Texas are eligible for but not enrolled in CHIP or Children's Medicaid, according to the Children's Defense Fund of Texas.
If Perry signs the bill, the changes could take effect as early as Sept. 1.